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Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software vs. Cisco Firepower 2100 Series

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ACisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the core OS for the ASA suite. It provides firewall functionality, as well as integration with context-specific Cisco security modules. It is scaled for enterprise-level traffic and connections.N/A

    Cisco Firepower 2100 Series

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ACisco offers the Firepower 2100 Series NGFW, designed to allow businesses to gain resiliency through superior security with sustained performance. The Firepower 2100 Series has a dual multicore CPU architecture that optimizes firewall, cryptographic, and threat inspection functions simultaneously, to achieve security doesn’t come at the expense of network performance.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco Firepower 2100 Series
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Firepower 2100
    3,000-20,000
    per appliance
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco Firepower 2100 Series
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco Firepower 2100 Series
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    87%
    Would buy again
    39 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    41 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    41 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    36 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    40 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco Firepower 2100 Series
    Firewall
    Comparison of Firewall features of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower 2100 Series
    Feature
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    7.8
    49 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Cisco Firepower 2100 Series
    8.4
    1 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Identification Technologies6.532 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Visualization Tools6.530 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content Inspection8.032 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Policy-based Controls9.045 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Active Directory and LDAP7.547 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Firewall Management Console7.547 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Reporting and Logging5.948 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    VPN9.048 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    High Availability9.047 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Stateful Inspection9.046 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Proxy Server8.031 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco Firepower 2100 Series
    Small Businesses
    SonicWall NSA Series
    Score8.5 out of 10
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    Medium-sized Companies
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Meraki MX
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco Firepower 2100 Series
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (87 ratings)
    5.5
    (2 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.1
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    7.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.7
    (8 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareCisco Firepower 2100 Series
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    Cisco ASA's are great for internal network connected access between a firewall and the central management server. And, for complex networks where high security requirements with overly strict compliance are necessary. For networks with limited connectivity to the core or for poor network connectivity these are not the best solution. There are other more stand-alone firewall's that do this better. These firewall's are a little more complex to set up to start with so significant knowledge of these devices is required to set them up and ensure they are best practice installed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cisco
    The Cisco [Firepower] 2100 [Series] is an easy sell for anyone looking. You already know Cisco excels in the security department, but now that firepower lives right on the box and inline with the rest of the firewall data flow you can save yourself a lot of time and headaches. Unless you cant quite afford Cisco's 2100 line, there's not much reason to go with the competition.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • ASA is our VPN concentrator. The client and server are very stable and very easy to use
    • ASA also offers Intrusion Prevention, to an extent. This is also very useful for an improved security posture for a small company
    • ASA allowed us to scale very quickly. We could onboard clients, partners, and consultants and give them a great onboarding experience as well
    • Administrative costs with ASA are low. It's very easy to administer.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    • For us, to power the whole system does scaling quite a bit. So we can definitely have a lot of room to grow if needed. The device can support a lot of way more than we need right now, but in the future, if we need more it seems to be a big pro of that. Also the support of Cisco, knowing that it's backed by Cisco definitely is good. You guys are the largest players in the market
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • The ASDM software is at times a nightmare to install because of different java versions[.]
    • [The firewall] could do with a power button, just to be able to do a hard reboot when needed[.]
    • It would be nice to manage the firewall via the web on port 443[.]
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    • Cisco patches bugs quickly but patches are slow to install and reboot
    • Smart licensing is getting better but still can be troublesome
    • Some weird visual interface glitches that require clicking the same options a few extra times
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    To be honest there has been now great products out in the market compared to Cisco ASA. I beleieve Cisco has to do a lot of improvement in this area. The other defeiniete factors is the cost when it comes to renewals which is always a premium on Cisco products
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    I generally have not noticed the outages, however since it's a machine it can malfunction, we need to implement the firewall infrastructure in such a way that it is highly available with device failure, region failure etc. Else any solution will be having the issues if they are not build with resiliency.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    The support is usually very good and gets back to you very quickly. However I had some instances of when two engineers will give me wildly different answers to what I thought was a simple question. Overall however I do rate the support highly and they are generally always very good.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    It was quite a good one, how ever requires an expertise to deploy hence the SMB segment would be finding it difficult to implement this product. The one good reason is that there are lot of ASA certified engineers in compared to the other certified engineers. Hence this resembles positively on the deployment as you have quite a lot of experienced engineer on your deployment
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    We were using [pfSense] before in our environment but we regularly facing difficulties over it due to software bugs & downtime. After implementing Cisco ASA, it resolved our availability issue & provides us a reliable solution with the best security features & easy to understand GUI.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Most network engineers have worked with ASA, so there is no need for re-training when adding or turning over staff
    • Current configs from older devices plug in easily, and are operational on larger devices if an upgrade is required
    • Many support options available
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    • It's keeping threats out like a firewall should. Definitely cost wise it is at a higher cost center than other alternatives. Especially when it comes to licensing. Cisco is generally the higher, for perhaps, definitely for good reason, right? I mean, definitely positive impact as far as working as it should that's at cost.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots